K.N. Pandita
It is premature to assess Modi Government’s performance. We will do that at its proper time. Right now, much of what PM Modi would want to do can be cobbled together from his election speeches. How many commitments will materialise at the end of the day depends on the response of the people from time to time.
We can, at least, frame some contours of his security concerns, a subject of considerable priority with his administration. Pakistan-based Theo-fascist organizations, planning for Islamic Caliphate strictly run by sharia law, are casting their shadow on vulnerable sections in India. During Congress regime this was patently projected as home grown discontent springing from so-called discrimination against the Indian minority community.
Apparently, Pakistan’s anti-India bureau has no compulsion to restrain jihadis from their Kashmir adventure. LeT continues to bask in ISI’s sunshine. Nawaz Sharif has little leverage over the army and ISI. During his brief talk with Narendra Modi, he could not go beyond saying that terrorism is a challenge.
This and the revelations coming from captured jihadis of various groups across the country give an idea of their designs. Attack on Indian Consulate in Herat is a corollary to the indicated design. Containment of terror is Modi Government’s first priority.  While planning any new strategy, an assessment of how the Congress coterie was soft paddling on terrorism, particularly in Kashmir, was desired. It was done very quickly. In fact, the BJP cell on national security had made the assessment far ahead of parliamentary elections. It was in pursuance of that assessment that former IB Chief Ajit Doval was recalled to be the new NSA even before the Council of Ministers was announced.
Grapevine has that inner circles in the Congress, in tandem with some of their foreign cohorts, had got the wind of re-employment of the former spy master and tried their best to stonewall it.  In a story, an English daily of Jammu lamented that the attempt of scuttling the appointment of Doval failed. The inference is that soft-paddling on terror will be reversed. It could be an indication of Modi Government adopting more muscular approach.
Congress regime’s soft paddling on terror emboldened terrorists, secessionists and their external mentors. It created an impression with jihadis that over a period of time, opposition to them will fade away and they will carry forward their agenda without much resistance.
Now that this will no more be the scenario, the wounded animal will react with added ferocity till it is neutralized. In that sense Ajit Doval has a thorny path to tread but veterans welcome adventures.
During Congress regime, ISI had succeeded in relegating proxy war to jihadi ambit but with the induction of Indian super cop, the scene will shift back to spy war levels.
Very rightly, Prime Minister chose a right person to man the portfolio of Eastern States for more than one reason. We find various elements interfering in the Eastern region of the country. China, Bangladesh, illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, internal dissenters in some of the Eastern States, Naxalites, Maoists and others are the source of disturbance. The former Army Chief and a patriot to the hilt, retired General V.K. Singh will be heading the ministry.
The strategy of fighting terror and separatism is now split into two wings, the western and the eastern. But evidently, there has to be close cooperation between the two. General Singh’s appointment as federal minister for northeast region has been made keeping in mind that the strength of the Eastern and Northern Commands has to be streamlined substantially along with infrastructural wherewithal in next one decade. He is the person who had drawn the blue print of a mega scheme of expanding and upgrading of our combat capability in both sectors.
General Singh’s appointment will have bigger impact on the terror spread by Naxalites and Maoists. There have been passing reports in print media that Islamists in India were now trying to establish liaison with Naxalites. It is already known that ISI has established its moles in Bangladesh close to the border with India. ISI’s Bangladeshi operatives have been apprehended at various places across the country and valuable information has been extracted from them about who handles them and in what ways.
The two top-level appointments, reporting directly to Prime Minister Modi, point to a desire to address what are arguably India’s two most pressing external security concerns – Pakistan and China, both of which, like India, have nuclear arms.
One thing is obvious. With the unfolding of changed approach to internal security, good shake-up in our intelligence structure should be on the anvil. Corruption has seeped into these cadres also and that has to be totally unacceptable to Modi Government. Fake NGOs who have been carrying forward the agenda of Congress regime rather than the national interests will have to wind up their shops and replaced by highly efficient and nationalist NGOs.
Finally while reflecting on external threats to our security we have to remember that the elected Government in Islamabad is not in a position to push its desired agenda of peace with India. It knows that we are aware of its limitations. It also knows that today Modi Government is in a position to take a decision.
Nawaz Sharif has been speaking of taking up the thread where Vajpayee-Sharif talks had left. In practical terms, that may not happen. The position of Prime Minister Modi is quite different from what was the position of Vajpayee. Moreover much water has gone down the river since the time when Vajpayee had taken the initiative. How can Modi go back to Vajpayee initiative when the ISI tried to derail his meeting with Nawaz Sharif by launching attack on Indian Consulate in Herat? This leaves no space for Kashmir leadership, NC/PDP/Hurriyatis and others to urge Modi for talks with Pakistan on Kashmir. They will have to join Modi in asking Pakistan to stop infiltration of jihadis into our side before they ask for talks.

Surojit Mahalanobis
The political turf-row and the cacophony kicked up over Smt Smriti Irani’s educational qualifications and compatibility for her job at the MHRD are fundamental misnomers. If anybody examines her life and rise to celebrity, s/he would be convinced of the fact that she is educated with enough natural skills to be where she is today, and that is a greater achievement than those of many degreedharis in the previous Cabinets of the country.
Degrees do not make you educated, it is your skills at ideating the novelty and the unique which do. Yours skills at service to people needs to be tested. It is your social awareness and willingness to respond to the society around make you educated.
Smriti’s efforts would expectedly be more to put the right talents, who would deliver, at right places. She would expectedly rise up to the need of the country’s youngs and youths, who need skills education enough to secure gainful jobs as they grow up and deliver with excellence.
For that the country today needs logistic supports from the government, which Smriti would be in a better place to deliver, for she has gone through the needs at her times which the youths lookup to meet today.
India needs to reform the draconian British Education system that was instituted in the country by Macaulay only to create celebrated babus driven away from grassroots requirements but to speed up colonial agenda.
If we classify skills education just as vocational education or studies, we would probably make a half-approach to the current need. Skills education is inbuilt in general education. It begins from the primary stage from do-it-yourself types, and awareness of certain socio-environmental issues intrinsic to human life. Why do we find Ramakrishna Mission Vidyapith students fare better at any given competition in education and life than many other English medium schools and colleges? It is because the sense of quality at delivering been intrinsic to their education systems.
We can also take leaves for examples from the socio-educational histories of, at least, the two largest economies of the world – one capitalist form of economy, the USA, and the other recently-opened up fast rising economy, that is of China. In both, despite difference in socio-environmental life, child is the prime subject to be coached into quality education. It is quality of household behaviours, quality of day to day tasks at schools and college levels, quality on understanding what is nationally and socially good and what is not correct approach to an issue, etc. all that matter most.
India had all this well in place before the foreigners started invading the country one after another since Darius. Both Hiuen Tsang, in 7th century, and later, in the early 19th century, Macaulay, recorded the unique India, which had centres of excellence and learning. India was well-placed to showcase to the world its wealth of knowledge and wisdom, far-reaching out to the heterogeneous humanities.
Today’s India still retains those worlds of excellence, but in isles forms. We have isles of excellence – world-class doctors and surgeons, Nobel laureates in academics and sciences, top visionaries in healthcare-researches, environments, great visionary teachers – almost in all walks of life. Yet we lack in coordination, which is the result of muddled skills at understanding what is quality.
About 30% to 40% patients’ deaths occur due to over-medication, shabby post-treatment or post-operative nursing, lack of hygienic laundry or housekeeping at hospitals/nursing homes/PHCs, wrong-dietary care, and extorting business-mindedness at healthcare. All these continued to happen in the country for over 65 years, despite excellently educated were in the helms of country’s governance.
The country suffers from general apathy to societal responsibility of people. Selfishness and lack of transparency at public works have nullified relevance of Gandhian thoughts of social responsibilities and awareness. We need to correct all this. And in this our media must conform to national calls and just not work for make revenues by sensational stories. It is almost for decades the important media houses have virtually stopped writing on Gandhian concept of economy or Tagore’s concept of education.
Talking blandly, at schools and colleges there has to be responsible approach to result-orientation, not only at percentage in examinations but also at general value system. Teachers must attend their classes, must not flout their tasks at delivering complete approach to syllabi, take student’s problems in one to one situations. At least these are possible when they take home hefty sums as salaries after the Fifth Pay Commission, every month.
When delivery of quality is a national necessity, private institutions must not debar students from admission over money. It is high time, Indian private institutions had risen to the cause of the nation more than innovating how more to make money.
In most of our educational tools we give stress onto lopsided ideas which are more utopian than practicable. While creating a craftsman or an engineer, we begin to create philosophers. It is no denying the fact that the value system would be the backbone of education, but at the same time, senseless copycat of educational tools of what the West has is also not the right approach to education. Macaulay’s was a political mind when he expressed for argument that a shelf of an educated Briton’s library was equivalent to the entire Oriental and Persian bodies of knowledge, and therefore, Indians should be induced into British education on its lopsided church lines. Even today’s Britain has changed its educational structures to creating novelties.
We need to learn English to keep ourselves fighting fit for international competitions. At the same time we need to inculcate fundamental Oriental knowledge where ideas get tinged with the realistic application of the knowledge. Chinese system has shown the way, successfully. Japanese craftsmanship has developed body of ethnic knowledge, while competing the world markets in manufacturing and services sectors.
Recently, a number of IITs, engineering colleges and the IIMs have changed their curricula to complete hands-on training schedules in their syllabi. The awareness of Quality at work and dutifulness grow in the students naturally in the process.
If technical education is readily approachable for changes, the same may not be true for the general education. It is mainly because we take general education for granted. India has body of knowledge enough to develop lesson disseminating tools to teach social science subjects.
The country needs to take advantage of the left-out or ignored talents. Setting up Vocational Training Centres, Community Colleges, and more and more evening schools and colleges are one way of doing it. If successfully addressed, population upsurge would not be a problem to the nation-builders, but be the real boon to curve out a newer younger India.
For the new MHRD minister, at present all this is a hard call. But from her determination, she has made it amply clear that she can do many such things in the next five years. Politicians of all hues can serve well if only they can stand and wait in silent cooperation, without mouthing cacophony.  (IPA)